Multi-vortex dynamics in junctions of charge density waves

Ground state reconstruction by creation of topological defects in junctions of CDWs is a convenient playground for modern efforts of field-effect transformations in strongly correlated materials with spontaneous symmetry breakings. Being transient, this effect contributes also to another new science of pump-induced phase transitions. We present a dynamical model for behavior of the CDW in restricted geometries of junctions under an applied voltage or a passing current. The model takes into account multiple interacting fields: the amplitude and the phase of the CDW complex order parameter, distributions of the electric field, the density and the current of various normal carriers. A particular challenge was to monitor the local conservation of the condensed and the normal charge densities. That was done easily invoking the chiral invariance and the associated anomaly, but prize is an unconventional Ginsburg-Landau type theory which is not analytic with respect to the order parameter. The numerical modeling poses unusual difficulties but still can demonstrate that vortices are nucleated at the junction boundary when the voltage across, or the current through, exceed a threshold.Comment: To be published in proceedings of the conference SUPERSTRIPES-2014, A. Bianconi ed., J. Supercond. Nov. Mag., (2015

Removing batch effects for prediction problems with frozen surrogate variable analysis

Batch effects are responsible for the failure of promising genomic prognos- tic signatures, major ambiguities in published genomic results, and retractions of widely-publicized findings. Batch effect corrections have been developed to re- move these artifacts, but they are designed to be used in population studies. But genomic technologies are beginning to be used in clinical applications where sam- ples are analyzed one at a time for diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive applica- tions. There are currently no batch correction methods that have been developed specifically for prediction. In this paper, we propose an new method called frozen surrogate variable analysis (fSVA) that borrows strength from a training set for individual sample batch correction. We show that fSVA improves prediction ac- curacy in simulations and in public genomic studies. fSVA is available as part of the sva Bioconductor package

Against determinism: A reassessment of Marcel Mauss’s essay on seasonal variations

Le célèbre «Essai sur les variations saisonnières des sociétés Eskimos» de Marcel Mauss est traditionnellement compris comme un texte sur la prééminence du monde social dans le fait de déterminer et d’imposer une organisation saisonnière au monde physique. De telles interprétations de la saisonnalité ne parviennent pas d’ordinaire à prendre correctement en compte les débats actuels sur la terre et sur la société dans l’Europe et l’Amérique du Nord contemporaines. En examinant attentivement le contexte historique de l’essai, on découvre la forte possibilité d’une lecture alternative: qu’il ait été rédigé dans un but polémique à l’encontre de la théorie anthropogéographique de l’école de Friedrich Ratzel. La cible première était Hans-Peder Steensby, disciple de Ratzel. En décrivant Steensby comme n’étant préoccupé exclusivement que de géographie physique, Mauss a réinterprété les données de celui-ci à l’intérieur de ses propres données contextuelles de morphologie sociale. Il en a conclu que le principe crucial qui gouvernait la vie saisonnière des Inuit était la symbiose entre le monde social et le monde physique, et non pas la détermination physique ou les adaptations technologiques identifiées par les anthropogéographes. Le fait de comprendre que Mauss cherchait à distancier sa propre sociologie/anthropologie de la géographie nous donne la possibilité de réfléchir à la divergence dans l’orientation théorique et le choix des questions de recherche dans la communauté des chercheurs en études inuit.The famous “Seasonal Variations of the Eskimo” by Marcel Mauss has traditionally been understood as a text about the dominance of the social world in determining and imposing seasonal organisation on the physical world. Such interpretations of seasonality typically fail to take adequate account of contemporary European and North American debates about land and society. Paying close attention to the historical context of the essay reveals strong evidence for an alternative reading: that it was written as a polemic against anthropogeographical theory from the school of Friedrich Ratzel. The prime target was Hans-Peder Steensby, an intellectual disciple of Ratzel. Depicting Steensby as exclusively concerned with physical geography, Mauss reinterpreted his evidence within his own evidential context of social morphology. He concludes that the crucial principle governing Inuit seasonal life is the symbiosis between the social and physical worlds—and not the physical determination or technological adaptations diagnosed by the anthropogeographers. Understanding that Mauss was seeking to distance his own sociology/anthropology from geography provides an opportunity to reflect on the divergence in theoretical orientation and choice of research problems amongst the community of Inuit studies

Mexico: The Case for Creation of a National Court of Human Rights

The continuing oppression and violation of human rights in Mexico is predicated on the abuse of executive power, suppression of the powers of the Comision Nacional de Derechos Humanos (the National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights), and the usurpation of the authority of the judiciary. This thesis conducts a comparative analysis of the protection of human rights under the Constitution of the United States, the German Basic Law, and the Constitution of Mexico. It analyses the concept of the judicial review of executive and legislative powers and advocates for the establishment of a National Court of Human Rights in Mexico. This thesis examines Amparo, the traditional legal action for the protection of individual rights, and its shortcomings in affording adequate protection of human rights from abuse by executive power. The thesis concludes, by advocating for that the creation of the National Court of Human Right as an independent, unbiased and custodian of the human rights as contained in the Constitution of Mexico

Composition of the Innermost Core Collapse Supernova Ejecta

With presently known input physics and computer simulations in 1D, a self-consistent treatment of core collapse supernovae does not yet lead to successful explosions, while 2D models show some promise. Thus, there are strong indications that the delayed neutrino mechanism works combined with a multi-D convection treatment for unstable layers. On the other hand there is a need to provide correct nucleosynthesis abundances for the progressing field of galactic evolution and observations of low metallicity stars. The innermost ejecta is directly affected by the explosion mechanism, i.e. most strongly the yields of Fe-group nuclei for which an induced piston or thermal bomb treatment will not provide the correct yields because the effect of neutrino interactions is not included. We apply parameterized variations to the neutrino scattering cross sections and alternatively, parameterized variations are applied to the neutrino absorption cross sections on nucleons in the ``gain region''. We find that both measures lead to similar results, causing explosions and a Ye>0.5 in the innermost ejected layers, due to the combined effect of a short weak interaction time scale and a negligible electron degeneracy, unveiling the proton-neutron mass difference. We include all weak interactions (electron and positron capture, beta-decay, neutrino and antineutrino capture on nuclei, and neutrino and antineutrino capture on nucleons) and present first nucleosynthesis results for these innermost ejected layers to discuss how they improve predictions for Fe-group nuclei. The proton-rich environment results in enhanced abundances of 45Sc, 49Ti, and 64Zn as requested by chemical evolution studies and observations of low metallicity stars as well as appreciable production of nuclei in the mass range up to A=80.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures. Final versio

Neuron Morphology Influences Axon Initial Segment Plasticity

In most vertebrate neurons, action potentials are initiated in the axon initial segment (AIS), a specialized region of the axon containing a high density of voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels. It has recently been proposed that neurons use plasticity of AIS length and/or location to regulate their intrinsic excitability. Here we quantify the impact of neuron morphology on AIS plasticity using computational models of simplified and realistic somatodendritic morphologies. In small neurons (e.g., dentate granule neurons), excitability was highest when the AIS was of intermediate length and located adjacent to the soma. Conversely, neurons having larger dendritic trees (e.g., pyramidal neurons) were most excitable when the AIS was longer and/or located away from the soma. For any given somatodendritic morphology, increasing dendritic membrane capacitance and/or conductance favored a longer and more distally located AIS. Overall, changes to AIS length, with corresponding changes in total sodium conductance, were far more effective in regulating neuron excitability than were changes in AIS location, while dendritic capacitance had a larger impact on AIS performance than did dendritic conductance. The somatodendritic influence on AIS performance reflects modest soma-to-AIS voltage attenuation combined with neuron size-dependent changes in AIS input resistance, effective membrane time constant, and isolation from somatodendritic capacitance. We conclude that the impact of AIS plasticity on neuron excitability will depend largely on somatodendritic morphology, and that, in some neurons, a shorter or more distally located AIS may promote, rather than limit, action potential generation

Efecto de la aplicación del herbicida metsulfuron metil en mezcla con glifosato, en el establecimiento de plantaciones de Eucalyptus globulus Labill

- Bravo, T. Forestal Mininco S.A., Los Angeles, Chile. - Muñoz, F. ;Sánchez-Olate, M. Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción. Casilla 60-C, Concepción, Chile.La rentabilidad de las plantaciones de Eucalyptus globulus está en relación, entre otros factores, con la adecuada implementación de un programa de control de malezas. Según las condiciones en la cual se desarrolla la plantación, la aplicación de herbicidas antes de la plantación es una adecuada alternativa de control de las malezas. Para ello, se ha utilizado ampliamente mezcla de herbicida persistente en el suelo (Simazina) en combinación con un herbicida sistémico de amplio espectro (Glifosato). Debido al cuestionamiento ambiental del herbicida Simazina, se estudió su reemplazo por el herbicida Metsulfuron-metil. El ensayo se estableció en el año 2005 en un predio ubicado en la comuna de Mulchen, de propiedad de la empresa Forestal y Agrícola Monte Aguila S.A., de acuerdo a un diseño factorial de dos factores. Un factor es el herbicida Metsulfuron-metil en tres niveles (dosis de 50, 75 y 100 g/ha) y el otro, tiempo de carencia de plantación en dos niveles (15 y 30 días de aplicación antes de la plantación). La aplicación de Metsulfuron-metil se realizó en mezcla con Glifosato. Las variables respuesta fueron diámetro a la altura del cuello, altura y sobrevivencia de las plantas. A los 8 meses de aplicados los tratamientos hubo diferencias significativas en el crecimiento de las plantas de Eucalyptus globulus, no así, en su sobrevivencia

Gravitational Settling of ^{22}Ne in Liquid White Dwarf Interiors--Cooling and Seismological Effects

We assess the impact of the trace element ^{22}Ne on the cooling and seismology of a liquid C/O white dwarf (WD). Due to this elements' neutron excess, it sinks towards the interior as the liquid WD cools. The subsequent gravitational energy released slows the cooling of the WD by 0.25--1.6 Gyrs by the time it has completely crystallized, depending on the WD mass and the adopted sedimentation rate. The effects will make massive WDs or those in metal rich clusters (such as NGC 6791) appear younger than their true age. Our diffusion calculations show that the ^{22}Ne mass fraction in the crystallized core actually increases outwards. The stability of this configuration has not yet been determined. In the liquid state, the settled ^{22}Ne enhances the internal buoyancy of the interior and changes the periods of the high radial order g-modes by approximately 1%. Though a small adjustment, this level of change far exceeds the accuracy of the period measurements. A full assessment and comparison of mode frequencies for specific WDs should help constrain the still uncertain ^{22}Ne diffusion coefficient for the liquid interior.Comment: 26 pages (11 text pages with 15 figures); to appear in The Astrophysical Journa

Measuring Monetary Policy and Pass-Through in Chile

First, this paper reviews the most important literature based on money VAR, which explains monetarytransmission mechanisms and pass-through from depreciation to inflation in Chile and other countries. Second, it estimates three structural VAR models with short-run restrictions and one VEC with long-run restrictions. The results indicate that monetary-transmission has become less powerful in the last years than in the period 1986-1997 and that the low pass-through depends on economic activity, inflation and the inflation target.